The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers has campaigned for years for direct action by the profession to defend access to justice. Direct action is currently ongoing amongst criminal law solicitors and barristers.

It is essential that we learn the impact of the action. Alongside grassroots campaigns and other professional bodies, the Criminal Bar Association is playing a role in organising the action. They have set up a monitoring system to establish the impact that action is having so far. This is set out below.

No Returns

If you returned a case due to a diary clash, we would invite you to try and follow it up, where possible, to see what became of it. Please send the information using the following form:

If you have accepted a return on the 27th July or beyond, equally we would invite you to fill out the form so the action can be monitored properly . The information collected will be used simply to monitor the action and not to single people out who have chosen not to participate by accepting returns.

No legal aid order

If you are in the Crown Court and witness a defendant appearing who is not in receipt of legal aid, through the solicitors action, we would invite you to fill out the following form:

Equally, if you are instructed in a post 1 July matter which does have a legal aid order in place, please use the same form. Again, this information is not being collected to stigmatise those who are accepting new work, but rathe to monitor just how many representation orders are being applied for.